OH HOW I MISS MY CRANFORD LADIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How many of you got the chance to see the series CRANFORD on PBS Masterpiece Theatre? I hope a lot of you did and I bet that those of you who saw it enjoyed it as much as I did. If you didn’t see it this first time around then you must make the extra effort to catch it the next time it plays, or rent it, or borrow it, or buy it for goodness sakes because it’s that good!!!!!! Besides this period piece being so well written, acted, directed, and steeped in gorgeous details it was filled with so many lead female characters over the age of 40. These characters were everything—-smart, brave, kind, courageous, stubborn, industrious, vain, silly, loving, beautiful, homely, helpful, wise, adventuresome, and progressive. (Well as much as a woman living in the English countryside could be in the 1840’s).
The women from CRANFORD were from different classes and yet they cared about and learned from each other. At times they were in love, out of love, looking for love, or not caring about love which made them happy, sad, angry, lonely, fearful, jealous, mean—-everything a woman feels. The exciting difference being these were older women and lots of them. In our media today this is a rare occurrence.
It was uplifting for me to care so much about these women and their ordeals and to look forward to what would happen to them next. Everything about this production was superb. Now it is over and I will miss it and I will miss the women but what I think I will miss the most is that I may not see this kind of excellence in utilizing the lives and talents of women over 40 for a long time.
Watching talented female actresses who are over the age of 40 portraying women of 40 or over who are so essential to the story shouldn’t be such a rarity. It isn’t true in life so why should it be in film. Maybe I’ll be wrong and CRANFORD’S success will encourage other productions that include so importantly the value of older women. What do you think?
PS. I must say that the male characters over 40 in CRANFORD were well written and acted as well–but then we’ve come to expect that haven’t we. I’m just hoping that we can even the opportunities for women.
Claire Callaway, blogger for In the Trenches Productions, The First Entertainment Website Celebrating the Power and Beauty of Women Over 40
